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Cody's Books to leave S.F. -- 'It just didn't work'

Cody's Books will shutter its only store in San Francisco after 18 months of trying to survive in a cutthroat environment for independent booksellers.

The 22,000-square-foot store on Stockton Street, between Union Square and Market Street, will close on April 20. It will send 20 percent of its inventory to the last remaining Cody's location, on Fourth Street in Berkeley.

Cody's President Andrew Ross, who mortgaged his house to open the San Francisco store, said it has been losing $70,000 a month. He expressed disappointment in its failure.

"It wasn't like it almost didn't work -- it just didn't work," he said. "To make it work, we would have had a long, long way to go."